Pumping unit



P 1934 s. H. HOBSON 9 PUMPING UNIT Filed April 2, 1932 2 Sheets-Sheet l 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Apr. 3, 1934 UNITED STATES PATEN QFECE PUMPING UNIT Stanley H. Hobson, Rockford, Ill., assignor to Geo. D. Roper Corporation, Rockford, 111., a corporation of Illinois Application April 2, 1932, Serial No. 602,670

4 Claims. (Cl. 103-218) This invention relates to a pumping unit for taken apart to get at the pump or motor. These various purposes, but in this instance especially objections are all avoided in accordance with my designed for use in connection with a hydraulic invention by providing a unit such as that desiglift, such as are used in automobile service stanated generally by the numeral 10 which can be tions and other places. I placed at some distance from the lift and has only 60 The principal object of my invention is to proan oil line 11 extending therefrom to the top of vide an extremely compact unit of the kind rethe cylinder 9, whereby to deliver oil under presferred to in which all of the working parts are sure to the cylinder to raise the plunger. The enclosed for protection as well as neatness in unit 10, briefly stated, comprises a storage tank appearance, but are nevertheless quickly and 12, a pump 13 for pumping oil from the tank 65 easily accessible for inspection and repair, if the through the line 11 to the cylinder 9, and an occasion arises. In accordance with this object, electric motor 14 for driving the pump. Thus,

I provide a storage tank disposed vertically in all of the working parts are completely divorced elevated position and resting on a jacket disfrom the lift and located where they are easily 15 posed therebeneath, whereby to provide a housaccessible for inspection and repair. Units of 70 ing under the tank for the rest of the unit. Enthis kind can, of course, be used in changing closed in this housing is a pump directly conover air lifts to hydraulic operation, using the nected with the bottom of the tank, and a mopiping already installed to conduct the oil from tor directly connected with the pump for drivthe pumping unit to the lift cylinder.

mg the same, the pump and motor being sus- Referring now more particularly to Figs. 1 75 pended together from the bottom of the tank and 2, it will be seen that the tank 12 is diswith the motor disposed vertically above the posed vertically in elevated relation to the pump for compactness. ground or floor on which the unit is to rest, and

Other objects and advantages of the invention has a jacket 15 disposed therebeneath to supwill soon appear in the course of the following port the same and also provide a housing under so specification, in which reference is made to the the tank for enclosure of the pump and motor, accompanying drawings, wherein-- for protection of these working parts, especially Figure 1 is a central vertical section through if the unit is placed outdoors, and also to make a pumping unit made in accordance with my infor compactness and neatness in appearance.

3o vention; The pump 13 is substantially of the same con- Fig. 2 is a horizontal section on the line 2-2 struction as those provided for installation in of Figure 1; the lower end of the lift plungers, but in this Fig. 3 is a more or less diagrammatic view of instance is fastened by its flange 16, which othera typical lift installation, and wise abuts the lower end of the plunger, to the 35 Fig. 4 is a sectional detail on the line 4- 4 of lower end of a casing 17, which is connected by 100 Figure 1, showing the relief valve. means of a pipe 18 with the bottom of the tank The same reference numerals are applied to 12. The pump 13 has a screened intake or succorresponding parts throughout the views. tion port 19 communicating with the suction Referring for a moment to 3, the numeral chamber 20 on one side of the intermeshing 5 designates a conventional lift having parallel pumping gears 2.1 and 22 appearing in dotted out- 95 troughs 6 on the platform 7 onto which an autoline in Fig. 2. A discharge chamber 23 is promobile may be run to be elevated by means of a vided on the other side of the pumping gears, plunger 8 working in a cylinder 9. Most lifts as indicated in Fig. 2, and a spring-seated check r h pu p v a p p down in the lower valve 2-: opens to permit discharge of oil under end of the p & a sfer Oil from the pressure from said chamber into a casing 25 J00 plunger to the cylinder to elevate the platform. fastened below the pump to the casing 1'7, as Some of these lifts have the pump driven by a shown. The oil line 11 mentioned before is conmotor mounted in the upper end of the plunger, nested with the casing 25, to conduct the oil to and one type has the motor mounted in an oilthe cylinder 9. Naturally, the valve 24 opens tight housing in the bottom of the plunger so as to only when the pump is operated and closes the p i direct connection wi h the pump and moment the pump stops, whereby to support the avoid the disadvantages of having to use a drive lift platform in any elevated position. The oil shaft extending the full length of the plunger. can be returned by by-passing it from the casing However, there are serious objections to those 25 to the ca'sing'l'? through a manually operated constructions, because the entire lift has to be release valve 26. This valve is normally held seated by a compression spring 27, but is arranged to be forced open by means of a push rod 28 to allow oil to flow from the casing 25 into a passage 29 cored in the pump casing. The oil finds its way from the passage 29 into the casing l'I through a small hole 30, whereby to restrict the flow enough to insure a suficiently slow descent of the lift platform. The push rod 23 is operated by means of a tappet 31 mounted on a rod 32 received in a bearing 33 on top of the casing 1'7. The rod extends laterally from the casing through a hole in the jacket and has the outer end bent at right angles to provide a handle 34 for operating the same. It is no doubt clear from the foregoing description that oil or whatever fluid is used is stored in a sufiicient quantity in the tank 12 to take care of a predetermined rise of the plunger 8 in the cylinder 9, and when the pump 13 is driven by the motor 14, the oil is delivered to the pump by gravity through the pipe 18 and discharged under pressure through the line 11 extending to the cylinder. The lift platform is accordingly raised and will be supported inany position by reason of the valve 24 closing and trapping the oil in the line 11. Then when the lift platform is to be lowered, it is only necessary to open the valve 26 by means of the handle 34 to allow the oil to return to the storage tank.

I prefer to provide a pressure relief valve 50 for establishing emergency communication between the discharge chamber 23 of the pump 13 and the casing 17, or, in other words, between the discharge chamber 23 and the suction chamber of the pump. This emergency communication is to be had only when the pressure in the chamber 23 exceeds a predetermined limit beyond which there would be danger of the motor 14 burning out. Such a thing would be caused by abnormal loading of the lift. The relief valve, as clearly appears in Fig. 4, comprises a body 51 threaded into the top of the casing of the pump 13 for communication with the discharge chamber 23 on the one hand, and communication with the casing 17 or suction chamber 20 on the other hand. The body 51 is hollow and has ports 52 in the side walls thereof which are normally sealed by a plunger 53 held in abutment with the bushing 54 by the compression spring 55. The spring 55 has a predetermined loading, and its pressure may be increased by adjustment of the bushing 54, as is thought to be self-evident. When the pressure in the discharge chamber 23 exceeds a predetermined limit,

' the plunger 53 is moved against the action of the spring 55 to allow oil to escape from the discharge chamber through the ports 52 into the casing 17 and thence to the suction chamber 20. In other words, when an overload occurs, the

' motor continues to operate the pump but the oil is not delivered to the line 11 but simply allowed to bypass from the discharge chamber back to the suction chamber. Obviously, the relief valve 50 will be provided according to what is 'a considered a safe loading of the lift, having due regard to the horse power rating of the motor and the pressure rating of the pump.

The pump 13 together with the casings 1'7 and 25 is supported from the tank partly by the pipe connection 13 and partly by bars fastened at their upper ends as at 36 to brackets 3'7 welded or otherwise suitably secured to the bottom of the tank. The bars 35 have their lower ends fastened as at 38 to an upwardly extending portion 39 of the casing 17. The last mentioned portion terminates in a ring 40 in which a counterbore 41 is provided to receive a pilot portion 42 provided on the bell housing of the motor 14, disposed endwise vertically over the pump, between the pump and the bottom of the tank, and having its armature shaft coupled as at 43 with the driven shaft 44 of the pump 13. In other words, the pump and motor are suspended below the tank. I have found that this makes for most quiet operation, because the vibration incident to the driving of the pump by the motor cannot be transmitted directly to the floor and is absorbed to a large extent in the suspension means. The motor and pump are made easily accessible for inspection and repair by providing a door 45 in the jacket 15. The motor is preferably removable through the door opening. The supports 46 on the inside of the jacket 15 on which the lower end of the tank 12 rests are such that the tank can be lifted off the jacket to afford access to the pump whenever it may be found necessary to remove the same for inspection, repair, or replacement.

It is believed the foregoing description conveys a good understanding of all of the objects and ad vantages of my invention. While reference has been made throughout the description to use of this invention in connection with hydraulic lifts, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to that or any other specific application. For example, while the tank 12 in this case is an atmospheric gravity tank, being open to the atmosphere by means of the vent 4''! in the top thereof, it should be evident that units could be made in which the tank would be a pressure storage tank, in which the line 11 would be a suction line and the pipe 18 a discharge connection, instead of the other way around, as has been herein described. The structure disclosed in my Patent #1364307 of a water system pumping unit is an illustration of another type of unit to which the present invention is applicable, and, of course, still other units will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art. The appended claims have, therefore, been drawn so as to cover all legitimate modifications and adaptations.

I claim:

1. In a pump unit comprising a storage tank disposed vertically in elevated relation to a support, and means extending from the support up to the tank to support the same so as to leave the space clear under the tank, a suction casing closed at the top and open at the bottom adapted to receive the suction side of a pump therein, a pipe connected to the top of said casing and extending upwardly therefrom to the bottom of the tank for the double purpose of affording communication between the tank and casing for delivery of water to the latter by gravity and for the 1 purpose of partially supporting said casing from the tank bottom in elevated relation to the sup port, an open top discharge casing having a pipe extending therefrom for conducting fluid under pressure to a device to be operated thereby, a pump interposed between and forming a partition separating the suction casing from the discharge casing, said pump being rigidly secured in place between said casings with the suction side thereof drawing fluid from the suction casing and the discharge side discharging fluid under pressure into the discharge casing, the suction casing having an upwardly extending portion, and the pump having the driven shaft thereof extending through the top wall of the discharge casing into said upwardly extending portion, an

electric motor demountably supported on end on said upwardly extending portion, means providing a detachable driving connection between the armature shaft of said motor and the driven shaft of the pump, and one or more suspension members secured to the tank bottom at the upper end and to the upwardly extending portion at the lower end, whereby to cooperate with the first mentioned pipe to suspend the parts named'from the tank bottom.

2. A pump unit as set forth in claim 1 including a valve in the discharge casing seating upwardly to close an opening for establishing communication between the discharge casing and the suction casing through the pump, spring means normally holding the valve seated, an actuating rod extending from the valve upwardly through the top wall of the suction casing, and manually operable means for communicating movement to said rod to open the valve against the action of the spring means.

3. A pump unit as set forth in claim 1 including a valve in the discharge casing seating upwardly to close an opening for establishing communication between the discharge casing and the suction casing through the pump, spring means normally holding the valve seated, an actuating rod extending from the valve upwardly through the top wall of'the suction casing, and manually operable means for communicating movement. to said rod to open the valve against the action of the spring means, said last mentioned means comprising a rod rotatably received in a horizontal bearing on the pump casing and extending laterally therefrom and having a handle on the outer end thereof for turning the same, and a tappet mounted on said rod for oscillation therewith and engaging the upper end of the valve actuating rod.

4. A pump unit as set forth in claim 1 including a valve in the discharge casing seating upwardly to close an opening for establishing communication between the discharge casing and the suction casing through the pump, spring means normally holding the valve seated, an actuating rod extending from the valve upwardly through the top wall of the suction casing, and manually operable means for communicating movement to said'rod to open the valve against the action of the spring means, together with a restriction plug having an orifice of a predetermined size through which the fluid must pass in flowing from the discharge casing into the suction casing, for the purpose described.

STANLEY H. HOBSON. 

